Companies produce tons of marketing collateral every year, primarily because it’s a vital resource for a business to have to promote itself through its branded channels and its sales force.
But keeping up with all of that collateral can be time-consuming, confusing, and costly. There needs to be an efficient process that can streamline production and distribution of marketing collateral, keep up with every piece and what is being used, and stay accountable through better control and oversight.
Fortunately, marketing asset management systems accomplish that for modern-day businesses.
There are essential qualities that marketing asset management systems need in order to be successful and to be convenient for a manager. (After all, unless the system saves the manager time and effort, it’s useless for an organization.) Finding a system with these qualities in place can help an organization save time, money, and effort.
Here are the three vital qualities for a marketing asset management system.
Easy Aggregation
Your marketing collateral should ideally be gathered and controlled from one location. The Internet has made this easy, with the advent of cloud-based computing, so most marketing asset management systems have online functionality.
When we talk about easy aggregation, we are talking about having a central location that allows better oversight and control, especially if you are sending collateral to a sales force or organization that is distributed throughout the country.
We are also talking about having a system that is readily integrated into the company’s business platforms. The easier it is to use for a marketing department or a sales force, the more successful it’ll be. No one wants yet another system that stands alone and doesn’t work well with the business’s fabric of software.
Enhanced Accessibility and Accountability
A marketing asset management system also needs to be highly accessible, which lends itself to better accountability and control.
Being always online and operated from the cloud is a must in today’s high-paced digital world. You should be able to operate a campaign over any geographical distance, which often means making the system accessible for managers and team leaders all over the continent (or beyond).
The system also needs to give the manager total control over the entire process. An online system can allow a manager to review collateral, approve it, submit changes, or order distribution to groups in the field.
We have clients who use our proprietary marketing asset management system, DigiFLO, to create campaigns based on collateral and make changes throughout the process before the collateral is printed. This saves them a lot of stress when it comes to printing the collateral and then making changes – and having to redo the entire process.
Instead, with better accessibility and accountability, they can avoid costly reprints.
Superior Tracking
Finally, in today’s world, everything needs to be tracked. This includes marketing and sales collateral.
With a system in place, you can determine which pieces of collateral are being used the most and which are being underutilized – and can even see who on your team is using what. If a sales representative is overusing collateral, it’s something you can correct.
Tracking is essential when it comes to keeping inventory levels in check. A lot of our clients, before using DigiFLO, had too much inventory because they didn’t want to run out, yet didn’t know how much they had left. That caused them to order more than they needed, which costs more.
And of course, there’s always the problem of not having enough collateral because you ran out but didn’t know it. This puts a massive delay in your marketing and sales efforts.
Having a marketing asset management system makes life much easier for managers and supervisors who have to lead marketing and sales teams and depend on a regular supply of marketing collateral to enforce brand messages.
Contact DMS for more information on DigiFLO and using our custom marketing asset management system to help facilitate your marketing efforts.